Heather Bonney
Natural History Museum, London, Earth Sciences, Anthropology, Department Member
- Forensics (Anthropology), Human Anatomy (Biological Anthropology), Human Remains (Anthropology), Forensic Anthropology, Biological Anthropology, Forensics, and 20 morePhysical Anthropology, Forensic Archaeology, Forensic Pathology, Osteology (Anthropology), Archaeology, Osteoarcheology, Paleopathology, Indigenous Studies, Death and Burial (Archaeology), Ethnoarchaeology, Museum Anthropology, Forensic Medicine, Australian Indigenous Studies, Melanesia (Anthropology), Museum Ethnography, Anthropology of Death, Oceania (Anthropology), Death, Funerary Archaeology, and Osteoarchaeologyedit
In 1988, the disarticulated human remains of forty Roman individuals were discovered at 52-63 London Wall, London. Examination of the sample using techniques employed by forensic anthropology and entomology found that some of the material... more
In 1988, the disarticulated human remains of forty Roman individuals were discovered at 52-63 London Wall, London. Examination of the sample using techniques employed by forensic anthropology and entomology found that some of the material had been deposited in open waterlogged pits. The majority of the sample was adult males who had evidence for multiple peri-mortem blunt- and sharp- force injuries; many also had healed injuries, suggesting that violence was a common feature of their life. Despite the fact that this material was recovered from an industrial area in the upper Walbrook valley of London, the evidence for trauma, their context and associated archaeological and environmental evidence reveals that these deposits are markedly different from other published examples of human remains from the Walbrook stream and River Thames, and may represent the remains of headhunting by the Roman army and/or defeated gladiators.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Analysis of cut marks in bone is largely limited to two dimensional qualitative description. Development of morphological classification methods using measurements from cut mark cross sections could have multiple uses across... more
Analysis of cut marks in bone is largely limited to two dimensional qualitative description. Development of morphological classification methods using measurements from cut mark cross sections could have multiple uses across palaeoanthropological and archaeological disciplines, where cutting edge types are used to investigate and reconstruct behavioral patterns. An experimental study was undertaken, using porcine bone, to determine the usefulness of discriminant function analysis in classifying cut marks by blade edge type, from a number of measurements taken from their cross-sectional profile. The discriminant analysis correctly classified 86.7% of the experimental cut marks into serrated, non-serrated and bamboo blade types. The technique was then used to investigate a series of cut marks of unknown origin from a collection of trophy skulls from the Torres Strait Islands, to investigate whether they were made by bamboo or metal blades. Nineteen out of twenty of the cut marks investigated were classified as bamboo which supports the non-contemporaneous ethnographic accounts of the knives used for trophy taking and defleshing remains. With further investigation across a variety of blade types, this technique could prove a valuable tool in the interpretation of cut mark evidence from a wide variety of contexts, particularly in forensic anthropology where the requirement for presentation of evidence in a statistical format is becoming increasingly important.
The equine hoof wall is a hard keratinous structure which transmits forces generated when the hoof contacts the ground to the skeleton of the horse. During locomotion, the hoof capsule is known to yield under impact resulting in an inward... more
The equine hoof wall is a hard keratinous structure which transmits forces generated when the hoof contacts the ground to the skeleton of the horse. During locomotion, the hoof capsule is known to yield under impact resulting in an inward curvature of the dorsal wall and expansion of the heels. However, whilst researchers have studied the tensile and compressive properties of the hoof wall, there is a lack of data on the flexural properties in different locations around the hoof capsule.
Despite the widespread use of porcine bone as a substitute for human bone in the development of surgical technique and the use of fixation devices, relatively few studies have reported on the mechanical behaviour of porcine long bones.... more
Despite the widespread use of porcine bone as a substitute for human bone in the development of surgical technique and the use of fixation devices, relatively few studies have reported on the mechanical behaviour of porcine long bones. Regional variation in the mechanical properties of cortical bone from porcine femora was investigated using three-point bending and cutting tests. Results were related to measurements of bone architecture and composition and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) was used to calculate the calcium to phosphorus ratio. There was significant, but limited, regional variation in the strength of the femur with bone from the distal, posterior quadrant (241.4 ± 10.43 MPa) being significantly stronger than that of the lateral quadrant (162.3 ± 17.96 MPa). Cortical bone was also anisotropic; samples cut transverse to the bone's axis were around six times tougher than those cut parallel to the axis (p < 0.05). This corresponded with a significant negative correlation between the Young's modulus and toughness when cut along the longitudinal axis. RBS analysis of cortical bone samples gave a Ca:P ratio of 1.37 ± 0.035, somewhat lower than that reported for cortical bone of adult human femora. These results indicate that the mechanical properties of cortical bone show significant, but limited, variation around the porcine femur and that this should be taken into consideration when sampling and choosing an appropriate animal model for orthopaedic biomechanics research.